SEVERAL western Catholic bishops will not implement agreed procedures for new primary school management boards until a clause exempting religious run schools from new anti discrimination legislation is passed, The Irish Times has learned.
The bishops, who are understood to include the Hierarchy's education spokesman, Bishop Thomas Flynn, are objecting to moves to change the Employment Equality Bill, which is designed to counter discrimination in employment.
Section 37 (1) of this legislation, which completed its committee stage before Christmas, makes an exception for religious run schools and hospitals if job discrimination is essential for the maintenance of their ethos "or is reasonable to avoid offending the religious sensitivities" of their members or clients.
Democratic Left has objected strongly to this element of the Bill and it is understood that die Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, plans to bring forward an amendment at the Bill's report stage.
These moves have led to warnings from Catholic bishops and educational leaders that if the exemption clause is changed, the future of Catholic education could be jeopardised. The Bishop of Kerry, Dr Murphy, and the Bishop of Cloyne, Dr Magee, wrote to this effect to TDs in their dioceses last November.
Also in November, after two years of difficult negotiations, an agreement on the composition of primary school management boards was reached by the National Parents Council, the Irish National Teachers Organisation and the four school management bodies, notably those representing the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland. More than 3,000 of the 3,200 primary schools in the State have Catholic Church nominated trustees and Catholic bishops as patrons.
The November agreement provided for equal representation of parents, teachers and church bodies on primary school management boards, and ended the situation where the churches had an automatic majority through the chairman's casting vote.
In return for this concession, a "deed of variation" would define and protect each school's ethos. This agreement is currently being examined by the Government for its legality and constitutionality before being passed to the Cabinet for final approval.
The Government is hoping that the agreement will be in place in time for elections to the new management boards next month. They were due last October but because of the protracted negotiations between the educational partners, the Minister postponed them for four months.
Bishop Flynn is currently on a fortnight's holiday and was not available for comment last night. Another senior church source said it was not a question of the bishops refusing to implement the new procedures, but rather of them "deferring the beginning of the process of electing people to the management boards.